♂Samuel Edson

Samuel Edson (about 1612 – 20 July 1692) was one of the early settlers of Bridgewater, in Plymouth Colony^W, whose will left his fowling piece to his eldest son and his musket, sword and bandoleers to the two younger ones. He was the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006) by two separate lines of descent, both through his son Samuel Edson (1645–1719).

Salem and Bridgewater

Before Bridgewater, Samuel lived at Salem. According to a history of Salem’s early house lots, the town’s seven men granted him land there in August 1642, and on 24 September 1655 he sold part of it, with the dwelling house and barn on it, “on Cape Ann Side”, to William Browne, a Salem merchant. His son Samuel was born in 1645, probably at Salem.

By 1657 he was one of the freemen^W of Bridgewater. He is remembered as a deacon of the church there and is said to have built the first mill in Bridgewater. The proprietors of the plantation added two shares to the fifty-four they already held, one for him and one for James Keith, the town’s first minister.

He took his part in the town’s business. In 1666 the court named him, with Nicholas Byram and John Willis, a counselor of war to sit with the town’s military officers, and in 1667 he was named to the jury that was to lay out Bridgewater’s highways. In 1672 the court sent him, with Byram and William Brett, to buy the land north of the Titicut River, and on 20 November 1672 an Indian named Pomponoho, alias Peter, sold it to “Nicholas Byram, sen., Samuel Edson, sen., and William Brett, sen.” for the townsmen. In 1676, after King Philip’s War^W, the town chose “Mr. Samuel Edson”, with Elder Brett and Deacon Willis, to share out “the contributions made by divers christians in Ireland for the distresses of the Indian wars”.

Family

Samuel and Susanna had three sons, Samuel, Joseph and Josiah, and five daughters, Elizabeth, Susanna, Sarah, Mary and Bethiah, all eight named in Samuel’s will. Their daughter Susanna is said to have married James Keith, Bridgewater’s first minister.

Will and death

Samuel made his will on 15 January 1688/89 as “Samuel Edson Sen[io]r … of the Town of Bridgewater”. He left “my eldest son Samuel Edson my fowling piece” and to “my other two sons Joseph Edson and Josiah Edson my musket sword and bandaleers”. The rest of his estate went to “my loving wife Susanna Edson” for her life; after her, the lands were to pass to the three sons and the household goods to the five daughters. He named Susanna executrix, with his sons Samuel and Josiah as executors, and asked Mr James Keith, John Kingman and Thomas Snell of Bridgewater to act as overseers.

He died at Bridgewater on 20 July 1692, aged 80. On 20 September 1692 two of the witnesses swore to the will before the court at Plymouth. Samuel and Susanna were buried together in the old graveyard at West Bridgewater, under a single slab of natural granite lettered with both their deaths; when it was set up, and by whom, is not known.

Lines of descent

Both of Nancy Jane Blanchard’s lines from Samuel and Susanna run through their son Samuel Edson (1645–1719). One continues through his daughter Elisabeth Edson (1684–1716), who married Samuel Packard, down to Joseph Knapp (1763–1839); the other through his son Samuel Edson (1689–1771), the father of Abel Edson (born 1718), down to Eunice Carver (1763–1845). Joseph Knapp and Eunice Carver married, and the two lines meet in their daughter Polly Knapp (1798–1863).

Notes

Birth and death

No record of his birth is known. The year about 1612 is reckoned from his age at death: the printed vital records of Bridgewater, from the church record, enter “Samuel 1st, h. Susannah, July 20, 1692, a. 80”. The same church record calls his son “Samuel 2d” and his grandson “Samuel 3d”.

Salem

The Salem land comes from a study of the town’s early lots in the Essex Institute Historical Collections, vol. 56 (1920), which traces the lot from “the seven men of Salem” to Samuel Edson in August 1642 (the printed text gives both “Aug. 10” and “Aug. 20”) and from him to William Browne in September 1655. That this Salem man is the Bridgewater settler rests on the name and on Nahum Mitchell’s History of the Early Settlement of Bridgewater (1840), which says he and his wife “came from Salem”. The birthplace of the son, Salem, is from the 1903 Edson genealogy.

The mill, the deacon and the town’s business

The mill, the extra proprietors’ share and the title of deacon come from Mitchell’s history (1840), which calls him “Deacon Samuel Edson, from Salem” and says he “built the first mill in the place”; in his family register Mitchell says he “owned the first mill, and probably built it”. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1849) also calls him “Dea. Samuel Edson of Bridgewater”. The freemen’s list, the 1666 and 1667 appointments, the 1672 deed and the 1676 vote are printed in Mitchell’s annals of the town. The 1676 entry names “Mr. Samuel Edson”, without “sen.”; his son Samuel was then about 31, so the entry most likely, but not certainly, means the father.

The will

The will is recorded in the Plymouth County probate records, vol. 1, p. 143. Its witnesses were John Field, John Ames and Samuel Kinsley; Ames and Kinsley swore to it at Plymouth on 20 September 1692, when the testator was “now deceased”.

The daughters

Mitchell (1840) gives the daughters’ marriages: Susanna to the Rev. James Keith, Elizabeth to Richard Phillips of Weymouth, Mary to Nicholas Byram Jr. in 1676, Sarah to John Dean of Taunton in 1663 and Bethiah to Ezra Dean of Taunton in 1678. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (1849) dates Bethiah’s marriage to Ezra Dean 17 December 1676. These are compiled accounts. The James Keith whom Samuel named as an overseer was most likely this son-in-law.

The grave

The slab is entry 140 of the Old Grave-yard in West Bridgewater in Williams Latham’s Epitaphs in Old Bridgewater (1882), which pictures it as the “Edson tomb” beside the tomb of James Keith. Latham describes it as a natural granite slab, 5 inches thick and about 5 feet 7 inches by 4 feet 3 inches, resting on a foundation of broken stone, with the inscription naming Samuel and Susanna Edson and giving his death on 20 July 1692 at 80 and hers on 20 February at 81.